Demand Generation 101 - How #CRM Lifecycle Stages Can Make or Break You

I can't tell you how often I've joined companies or been contracted on projects where marketing and sales lifecycle stages in a CRM have not been created properly or have been overlooked. Understanding what each lifecycle stage means can empower any #startup or #organization that has either not encountered this before or is at the early stages of implementing this into HubSpot.

Simply put, a CRM Lifecycle Stage represents how a lead (someone who has shared their contact details through your website or other lead sources) interacts with your business at different stages of engagement with your marketing, #sales, and #customersuccess efforts. Properly defining and managing these stages is crucial for tracking and nurturing leads effectively throughout their journey with your company.

Most CRM lifecycle stages typically have the following stages, and these are the quick definitions:

Stage 1: Raw Lead — Initial contact info from a #potentialcustomer.

Stage 2: MAL — Marketing Accepted Lead: The lead meets essential criteria and filters (e.g., filter out competitors) set up in your CRM by the marketing team, automatically converting them into MALs.

Stage 3: MQL — Marketing Qualified Lead: The lead has either met the lead scoring criteria provided by the #salesteam to the marketing team (e.g., locations, job titles, industry) and has shown interest through actions like downloading content or engaging with emails, or has expressed an interest in speaking with your sales team.

Stage 4a: SAL — Sales Accepted Lead: The sales team will review the MQLs and select the leads they will follow up with. For those who are rejected, it’s very important that the sales team explains why they were rejected so that the marketing team can refine their targeting strategy and update the lead score to prevent a low SAL conversion rate.

Stage 4b: SGL — Sales Generated Lead: Leads generated directly by the sales team, often through outbound efforts.

Stage 5: SQL — Sales Qualified Lead: The lead has been qualified and verified by a #BDR and sometimes by an #AE for a direct sales approach, having met specific criteria (#BANT).

Stage 6: OPPs — Opportunities: Leads that have moved into the #salespipeline, which involves 8 #dealstages.

Stage 7: Customers: The lead has successfully converted into a paying customer.

Stage 8: Evangelist: These are satisfied customers who actively promote your brand, and their marketing and sales tactics are very different.

Stage 9+: Others: Includes partners or leads not directly related to customer sales.

The marketing team manages Raw Leads to MQLs. SALs/SGLs to SQLs are typically managed by the BDR team, and #OPPs to #Evangelists are typically led by BU heads/AEs. Customers to Evangelists are led by the Customer Success team.

Now that we have defined each stage of the sales and marketing lifecycle, let's examine common areas that are often overlooked.

1. Honor Each Lifecycle Stage: Ensure each lead goes through every lifecycle stage and does NOT skip any. Why is this important? Because this will impact your conversion rate for each stage. If you do not have the right conversion rate for each stage, your marketing and sales teams cannot develop accurate marketing and #salesforecasts. They need to reverse-engineer their forecasts, and if their conversions are not accurate, their forecasts will not be accurate. This typically happens when your lifecycle stages are not set up accurately. The #business or #finance team should easily determine how much budget to allocate to the marketing and sales teams when they know the conversion rate from lead to customer.

2. Agree and Understand Your Lead Sources: Ensure both the marketing and sales teams develop the original source (where the lead came from) together, so all lead sources are labeled correctly. This will help identify where your #highestROI is in your lead generation efforts and when the sales or marketing department develops their new fiscal year budget.

3. Control Authorization Access: When too many people have full admin authorization access, the lead source or other important information can be changed by someone, which will have a detrimental impact on your forecasts and ROI reports. I’ve seen this happen so often, and the only way you can find out is if you are the account holder or worked on generating the leads, and when you've checked, you will notice it has been changed. Ensure that only a few people have full access so you can protect your data's authenticity and integrity in your CRM.

4. Lead Scoring: This is very important and often requires the #BUheads to identify what criteria will meet their requirements, but often the #CRO should also review this to ensure both the marketing and sales teams are aligned with the business's long-term goals. For example, in the past, the BU heads disqualified leads that came in from a country that was not their primary target. However, the CRO might still want to engage with the lead due to where the business is heading, which the BU heads might not know.

5. Your #Data Does Not Lie: Ensure you look at the metrics your CRM tracks for each lifecycle stage and that all activities are being captured and tracked accurately. This is a very important step because you might be investing a lot of money in generating leads, but if a stage or activity is underperforming, it will not only impact your conversion rate but can also be very costly. For example, if you notice your conversion rates are very low in your automated sequences (SQL to OPP) or nurture journeys (MAL to MQL), find ways to improve the messages to boost conversion rates.

6. The Power of Workflows: Create an end-to-end diagram from Raw Leads to Evangelist to ensure the business, sales, and marketing teams have full visibility on the lead journey. This diagram should clearly define who is responsible for each stage, what activities need to be executed at each lifecycle stage, and the criteria for moving leads from one stage to the next. Additionally, it should highlight the tools and systems used at each stage, how data is tracked and reported, and when (time and how quickly) the lead will be contacted. This will help identify any bottlenecks or gaps in the process and ensure a seamless lead management system.

You can significantly enhance your CRM's effectiveness by meticulously developing and managing each lifecycle stage, ensuring alignment between marketing and sales, and protecting #dataintegrity. This comprehensive approach optimizes lead conversion, ensures #accurateforecasting, and enables precise budget allocation. As a result, your business will experience improved #growth and #success.

If you need help refining your lifecycle stages or optimizing your CRM strategy, I'm happy to offer a free 30-minute consultation to help you unlock your full potential. #GrowthStrategy #BusinessOptimization #LeadershipSuccess #StrategicGrowth #InnovationLeadership #MarketExpansion #DataDrivenDecisions #TransformationalLeadership #ExecutiveVision #ScalableSolutions.